The Nailers earned a 5-3 victory over Cincinnati to open the season last weekend. What did Wheeling do well to come away with the win?
First things first, a huge congratulations to Coach Ryan Papaioannou for earning the victory in his first game as a coach in the ECHL. While it must feel amazing to get the win, to see the players go out and execute your game plan and make it work in a professional league after coaching in juniors your entire career thus far has to be something special. It was also a special night for multiple players who earned their first points as professionals, which is nice to see as the season gets underway.
Things got started early, as Cole Tymkin of the Nailers and Justin Portillo of the Cyclones dropped the mitts just over three minutes into the contest, and Wheeling managed to follow it up with the first professional goal by Mike Posma just 23 seconds after that. Late in the first, Tymkin followed up his fight by knocking home a one-timer off a pass from Tommy Budnick, who earned his first two professional points with assists on both goals, but a late Cincinnati goal cut the Nailers’ lead to 2-1 to end the frame.
Matthew Quercia took a penalty as time expired in the first, and the Cyclones managed to score the only power play goal of the game for either team (on five total tries for the teams combined) to knot the score at 2-2 less than a minute into the second. The game remained tied until there was five seconds left in the period, when Zach Urdahl poked home his first career professional goal to give the Nailers the lead heading into the third.
In the final period of regulation, Cincy managed to tie things up again just over four minutes into the frame, and when it appeared that the game would head to extra time, Quercia put home a one-timer of his own, with Tymkin getting an assist to earn his Gordie Howe hat trick in the game. An empty-netter by Brayden Edwards, another player to get his first career professional goal for the Nailers in this game, clinched the victory for Wheeling to open the year.
The Nailers go on the road again this weekend, playing two in Maine against the Mariners. What can Wheeling do to hopefully come away with four points?
The Nailers opened last season with two games in Maine, winning the first game 4-1 before losing the next night by the same score. This year, the Mariners come into this two-game series having already played two games, winning 5-0 on the road over Worcester before losing 4-0 the next night at home against Reading. These two games are the first of five meetings this season between these two division rivals.
The most important thing for Wheeling in this game will be to come out and get to their game plan as quickly as possible. Be imposing, create havoc for Maine in their own zone, and use pressure on their goalie to your advantage. Just make sure that you play within yourself, though, and don’t take too many penalties. Despite the penalty kill group managing to go 2-for-3 against the Cyclones, the Nailers can’t afford to put too much time on the PK in a game and expect it to go their way, even against a team that has had 11 power play opportunities in their first two games and only scored once.
I would also encourage the Nailers to continue to feed the young guys the puck and see what they can do. Wheeling is full of players who are in their first season as a professional and are here on either NHL or AHL contracts, so they’re hungry to see what they can do and to prove to those teams that they deserve the chance to show what they have at a higher level. Coach Papaioannou is well aware of how that goes, having coached at a level where younger guys want to advance, and I believe he’ll know how to manage their performances to give them a chance to show their abilities with Wheeling as the season progresses.
The Nailers enter the 2025-26 season without naming a team captain. Does this surprise you, and who do you think would be the best choice to wear the “C” for Wheeling this year?
While it’s not completely unheard of for a team to not place the captaincy on a player at the beginning of a season, it feels weird to see the team without a “C” on any jersey. Of course, the player they put it on to begin last season (Nick Hutchison) left the team after only nine games to play in Europe, so placing a letter on a player doesn’t necessarily mean they’ll be here for the year. The hope is you put it on someone who will want to be here, be a leader for the guys on the team, and is ready to be that voice to represent the club.
That being said, I still think I would put it on someone who has a history with the team, someone who has been that leader in years past and knows what it means to be a Wheeling Nailer. In my opinion, the best choice would have been Matthew Quercia, who does wear an “A” as an alternate captain this year, but is definitely worthy of more. This is Q’s fourth season in Wheeling, and he has continued to grow his game and expand his knowledge and abilities as a player and a leader. He set a career high in goals with 20 and in penalty minutes with 188 last year. He isn’t afraid to step in to defend his teammates, and you can tell the players appreciate that about him. He has proven himself to be a model of what you want out of a Wheeling Nailer, and my expectation would be that, before the end of this season, he should receive the upgrade on his sweater.
The Nailers started last season slowly in terms of penalty minutes earned per game, but eventually worked their way up the rankings. This season, they earned 13 minutes of penalties in the first game alone. How important is it to keep that number as low as possible?
Ironically enough, Wheeling managed to earn 13 penalty minutes in each of their first two games last season against the Mariners as well. From there, the Nailers only earned double digit penalty minutes in five of their next 14 games through the end of November, although that includes 20 minutes in penalties earned against Cincinnati in a 7-1 victory on November 30 that saw two fights in the third period, once the game was already out of hand.
It would be nice to see the Nailers keep themselves in control and out of the box. Giving the other team multiple man advantages per game is not a great way to play hockey. It puts too much pressure on your penalty kill group, allows teams to force your goalie to make plays, and generally makes it more difficult to score goals yourself. I hope Wheeling can repeat what they did last season and start playing their game more within the confines of the rules and hopefully get some power plays of their own along the way and take advantage of them.
The Nailers’ first home game this season will be on November 1 after three road games. Last season, their first home game was on November 2 after four road games. Do you think it’s beneficial to open the season away from home for a couple weeks?
Last year, Wheeling managed to come home with a 2-2 record, splitting each two-game series with Maine and Reading. They won’t be able to do that this year, with only three games before the home opener, but it would be nice to see them come back to Wesbanco Arena with a winning record (hopefully sitting at 3-0).
I’ve always been a fan of starting a season with a bit of a road trip. It gives your players a chance to spend time together without other obligations they may have at home. They get to walk around a city that might be a bit foreign to them together, getting a feel for where they are, and enjoy the activities they get into on the bus while traveling. I think chemistry is built on a team by spending time together, and road trips are nothing but spending that time with one another. I hope they continue to build on it as they make their way to Maine this weekend and bring it home with them to face Norfolk when they finally play in front of the home fans in the Friendly City.
